Veteran star Burt Reynolds directed himself for the fourth time in this okay adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel. It's definitely minor league in terms of the Leonard adaptations out there, but it entertains adequately. Burt is cast as Ernest "Stick" Stickley, an ex-con who hooks up with old friend Rainy (Jose Perez) and accompanies him on a drug deal gone sour. Stick then becomes determined to exact some revenge on behalf of Rainy, taking on creeps like the dorky Chucky (Charles Durning) and the more genuinely menacing Nestor (Castulo Guerra).
Leonard is credited as one of the screenwriters, but wasn't overly pleased with the final results, since Universal ended up removing a fair bit of his trademark humour and replacing it with action scenes - to make it more "commercially viable". The result is a basically watchable movie that increases in interest and entertainment value as it goes along, and the characters become more engaging. Along the way, we get many lovely shots of Florida locales, and an upbeat score by Barry DeVorzon and Joseph Conlan. The film offers some sex appeal and violence, but shouldn't be too ugly for some viewers to take.
Burt is kind of going through the motions here, even as Stick reconnects with his young daughter (Tricia Leigh Fisher, younger half-sister of Carrie Fisher) and attempts to romance beautiful financial advisor Kyle (Candice Bergen, who does look great). George Segal is fatally annoying as motor mouthed rich dude Barry, a guy who likes to hobnob with the criminal element. Richard Lawson is good as one of Segals' employees. Durnings' performance is likewise good, but he looks so ridiculous with that wig, the false eyebrows, and that wardrobe that it's hard to take him seriously. Guerra offers the standout performance as the true villain of the piece.
But the real reason to watch "Stick" is to see the late, legendary stuntman Dar Robinson in an extended acting role, as a psychotic, albino henchman named Moke. He's a lot of fun to watch, and his final scene is memorable.
The Leonard purist might not be too fond of how this turned out, but it's reasonably enjoyable for Reynolds fans.
Six out of 10.
